Description: In this stunning, imaginative novel, LaFarge explores a secret in the life of Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, the great architect who demolished and rebuilt Paris in the middle of the 19th century. A "New York Times" Notable Book of 2001. 3 illustrations.
Brief description: Paul La Farge (1970 - 2023) was the author of the novels The Artist of the Missing, Haussmann, or the Distinction, Luminous Airplanes, The Night Ocean, and a book of imaginary dreams, The Facts of Winter. His novels and stories "defied easy categorization", according to the New York Times. His fiction and nonfiction appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's, Conjunctions, The Believer, Bookforum, and elsewhere. He lived in upstate New York.
Review Quotes:
"Imaginative. . .compelling storytelling. . .we can't help reading on." --The New York Times Book Review
"LaFarge is a confident, tireless trickster and yarn spinner...a magician on the scale of Prospero." --San Francisco Chronicle "LaFarge is a master storyteller with cleverness and inventiveness to spare....[An] ambitious and playful novel...full of artful prose, wit, and provocative ideas." --The Philadelphia Inquirer "With his dazzling gift for bringing irretrievable cities to life, LaFarge conjures sinuous, melancholic otherworlds that feel wholly tangible." --The Village Voice "Haussman designed cities; LaFarge designs worlds--splendid, elegant edifices built on the rubble of our dreams and history." --Colson Whitehead, author of John Henry Days